I went over the pontoon bridge and toured Pennsylvania for several hours, led first by Hans Benz then Jo-Jo Arbadji. I went into the Tinio, Campos and Martinez premises, a house at 1195 Singalong that still smelled, and the Santamaria compound. All but the battered Campos home were burnt ruins. Shells and shrapnel had made a mess of Benz's house and the Schulthess' beside it. The wonder is that anyone came out of it alive.

The Martinez Case: Benz estimated the dead at between 100 and 200. (Jo-Jo put it at 12 to 15 and was shocked when I told him Benz's figures.) Benz said Mrs. Martinez ran into his home one night with bayonet wounds in her arms and legs (confirmed by Schulthess), followed by a screaming muchacha in her undergarments. The crazed Mrs. Martinez was shrieking that the Japanese had killed her family. The Japanese then set fire to her two-story home, which burned to the ground. She died later in a hospital, somewhat out of her mind, repeating what her grandchild had kept saying to her: "Mama! My hand is missing!" What happened to the muchacha isn't clear. At any rate, I don't know where Benz got his figures; I saw the ruins — not a bone was showing, and I'm inclined to agree with Jo-Jo's estimate.

. . . .

The Campos Case: We went into their garden and looked around. Two days after the Americans rescued him, Benz went there and counted 32 bodies. Add a few inside the house and he estimates 50 or so, agreeing with Jo-Jo.

Jo-Jo said there was one survivor, a Lopez — relative of the Campos. When the people rushed into the garden in despair, the Japanese got most of them into the eastern corner and started shooting. Lopez climbed the wall at another corner, pleaded with the 35 or so year old Juaning Kahn, Leopoldo's brother, and the latter's wife to pass their three children over and come too, but Juaning froze so Lopez jumped alone. A moment later the Japanese guns found the Khans.

. . . .

The Bosque Case: Similar to the Pellicer tragedy, the Japanese invited them to the air-raid shelter in front of the Santamaria compound, and once inside, fired shots and hurled grenades at them. Only two appear to have survived. I knew one of the brothers that survived, talking to him for the last time on February 1 at the Escolta. I had a look at the sturdy concrete shelter today; I would have felt quite safe there. Of the Bosque family, four girls, three boys, Ma and Pa, two men and a girl of 16 perished. The Pellicers suffered greatly too.

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